The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of treadmill exercise and bright light exposure on serotonin expression in rat brain. Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly assigned into four groups (n=9 in each group), specifically, control group (CG), exercise group (EG), light group (LG), and exercise+light group (ELG). Rats in EG were subjected to treadmill exercise (5 days/week, 30 min/day), LG rats exposed (5 days/week, 30 min/day, 10,000 Lux), ELG rats subjected to treadmill exercise in combination with exposure, and CG rats remained sedentary over a four-week period. We observed a significant increase in serotonin expression in the raphe obscurus nucleu and the midbrain of rats in EG, LG, and ELG, compared to CG. Interestingly, serotonin expression was significantly increased in ELG, compared to EG and LG in the raphe obscurus nucleu via immunohistochemistry. In the western blot, it showed a increased pattern in ELG, compared to EG and LG. The overall results showed that treadmill exercise and/or bright light had positive effects on serotonin expression in the brain. Therefore, we suggest that moderate exercise or exposure to bright light during a growth child may be beneficial in brain action.
PURPOSE This study presents policy proposals based on literature review and document analysis in relation to sport concussion. METHODS Online documents were collected from sports organizations of the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Korea that either supervise sports concussion management policies or govern specific sports at different levels. RESULTS The results and implications of the study were as follows. First, safety education on sports concussion should be strengthened quantitatively and qualitatively, be required by all sports stakeholders, and will need to be executed by utilizing new technology platforms. Second, sports governing bodies must present a concussion safety policy tailored to each sport by distinguishing between youth and professional sports. Finally, discussions regarding the legalization of domestic sports concussion safety policies should take place in a timely manner. CONCLUSIONS These precautionary approaches would contribute to raising awareness on concussions in sports and help build a safer environment for sports.
It has been reported that continuous exercise and bright light exposure improved resistance to stress and reduced depression and anxiety, which were attributed to enhancing neurotransmitter GABA exocytosis and stimulating neurogenesis. In this study, the effects of treadmill exercise and bright light exposure on the expression of GABAAreceptor activity, calcineurin and calcineurin calcium signaling pathway-depended NFATc4, neurogenesis-related protein Cdk5 and specific regulator factor of Cdk in neurogenesis p35 in the hippocampus of rats were investigated by western blot assay. The expression of GABAAreceptor, Cdk5 and p35 significantly increased in the exercise+light group compared to the control group and the light group. The expression of KCC2 and NFATc4 significantly increased in the exercise+light group compared to all the other groups. And the expression of calcineurin significantly increased in the exercise+light group compared to the control group. The overall results showed that exercise and bright light stimulated neurogenesis of the hippocampus in rats and had positive effects on improving the brain neuronal function.
The cerebellum is one of the major parts of the brain involved in the motor control including motor coordination, muscle tone, balance, and the learning of motor skills. The purpose of this review paper was to explore of pathophysiology, anatomical function and neurophysiological mechanism for cerebellum. For this, we sought to examine of previous study related cerebellar disease. Specifically, this paper suggested that motor deficiency of limb movements, coordination, gait/posture balance, adaptation of during movement execution through information proprioception or kinaesthesia, and motor planning and programming of cerebellar patients. We expect that this review will be able to offer the useful information to research. For example, movement scientists will provide an academic information about cerebellar ataxia. Patients and their families will provide relevant information to the daily life (e.g., management and rehabilitation exercise).
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an eye movement exercise intervention on cognitive function and prefrontal cortex connectivity in the elderly with mild cognitive impairment. METHODS Ten older adults with mild cognitive impairment participated in eye movement exercise consisting of saccadic eye movement, pursuit eye movement, vestibular-ocular eye movement, and vergence eye movement for 4 weeks. Cognitive function (MoCA-K), reaction time during stroop task, and prefrontal cortex connectivity were measured using the functional near-infrared spectrometric analyzer (fNIRS) before and after the intervention. RESULTS First, cognitive function of the elderly with mild cognitive impairment showed significant improvement after the eye movement exercise (p < .05). Second, reaction time decreased significantly from 1.16 to 0.91 ms after eye movement exercise. Third, the strength of prefrontal cortex connectivity (left OFC - right FPC, right OFC - right FPC) increased after the intervention in the older adults with mild cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study suggest that eye movement exercise is an effective intervention for improving cognitive function through improvement of brain functional connection in the elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment.
Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of coupled high frequency rTMS and prism illusion in elderly stroke patients, based on the result of previous studies which discovered the effect of bilateral training, mirror rehabilitation treatment, and rTMS. Methods This is a case study of 4 stroke patients who were homogeneous on the basis of selection criteria such as brain injury area, duration of onset, degree of upper limb movement function. A total of 24 rehabilitation sessions were conducted three times a week during the training period, and TMS(transcranial magnetic stimulator), EMG, motion analysis system, and prism optical glasses were used for apparatus. Results The results of the study were as follows: Combined rehabilitation exercises were found to be beneficial to restore upper limb function in stroke patients. Particularly, the maximum speed of stretching and JTT(Jebsen-taylor Test) performance showed improvement after training. The amount of total map volume and MEP(megnetic evoked potential) increased in evaluation of neurophysiology. Conclusion The upper limb dysfunction of stroke patients could be restored by combine rehabilitation exercises.
